How many symbols do we use in SignWriting? Part 1

[Charles Butler]

10 groups of handshapes, knocking down to 7 groups of symbols, by category.  
 
And yet, that is misleading Valerie.  They asked "how many symbols do we use" not "how many categories do we use".  You are comparing apples to oranges to bypass the question.  
 
The question is -- flat out -- how many symbols do you use in Sign Writing.  That is distinct symbols, not rotations, not reflections.  
 
She asked a question, and you give her a misleading answer.  
 
English uses 26 letters, plus 10 number symbols, plus about 30 symbols on the keyboard that are used for specialized diacritics.  Cyrillic uses about 35 letters.  Cherokee is a syllabary with over 60, Chinese has more than 8,000 distinct characters.  
 
The count of 25,000 is approximately accurate as far as every symbol in the ISWA corpus including rotations and reflections. 
 
I don't like bypassed answers, answer her question, how many distinct symbols are there in ISWA?
 
Charles
 


--- On Tue, 8/18/09, Valerie Sutton <sutton at signwriting.org> wrote:


From: Valerie Sutton <sutton at signwriting.org>
Subject: Re: [sw-l] How many symbols do we use in SignWriting? Part 1
To: "SignWriting List" <sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu>
Cc: "MARIA AZZOPARDI" <maria.azzopardi at um.edu.mt>
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 11:44 AM


SignWriting List
August 18, 2009

On Aug 18, 2009, at 8:09 AM, Valerie Sutton wrote:
> First, in Part 1, I will discuss how I personally answer the question, when I am teaching people who are new to SignWriting and the ISWA...

Part 1...How do I answer the question: "How many symbols do we write with, in SignWriting?".

My short answer:
We SPELL signs with 28 groups of symbols. There are 10 groups of handshapes, 10 groups of movement symbols, 5 groups for the face and head, and 3 groups for torso, body and timing. When we write sentences and literature, we add another group of punctuation symbols.

So when people say that English spells with 26 letters, I say:

"SignWriting spells with 28 groups of symbols."


Another longer answer:

1. The International SignWriting Alphabet (the ISWA) has 7 categories of symbols:

ISWA 2008
Category 1: Hands
Category 2: Movement
Category 3: Face Head
Category 4: Body
Category 5: Dynamics
Category 6: Punctuation
Category 7: Advanced Sorting (for computer programming of sorting)

2. We SPELL individual signs with 5 categories:

Category 1: Hands
Category 2: Movement
Category 3: Face Head
Category 4: Body
Category 5: Dynamics

3. We write SENTENCES with added Punctuation, so that makes 6 categories:

Category 1: Hands
Category 2: Movement
Category 3: Face Head
Category 4: Body
Category 5: Dynamics
Category 6: Punctuation

4. We NEVER write with Category 7. It is only for computer programming of dictionary-sorting.



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